Session 11: Informal learning
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This document discusses informal learning in developing countries. It highlights John Dewey's view that education requires a balance of informal and formal learning. A 1972 UNESCO report found that in developing nations, informal self-education and apprenticeships were the main forms of learning outside of schools. Informal learning is characterized as less organized and without a curriculum, but learners are highly motivated. It is essential to early childhood development and lifelong adult learning, though difficult to quantify. The document contrasts informal learning beyond schools with formal learning that occurs in institutions.
Session 11: Informal learning
- 1. EDU1006: Education in Developing Countries Session 11: Informal learning Dr James Stanfield
- 2. • Introduction • Projects Hello World! • Big Question • Group presentations • Assignments
- 3. John Dewey, 1916 ‘one of the weightiest problems with which the philosophy of education has to cope is the method of keeping a proper balance between the informal and the formal, the incidental and the intentional, modes of education.’
- 4. Learning to be, UNESCO, 1972 • Highlighted the wide-ranging efforts of individuals in developing countries to better themselves through self- education without state support and outside the context of school provision. • non-institutionalised forms of learning and apprenticeships were the dominant means of education and training • called for a broadening of education and training prospects
- 5. Characteristics of informal learning • Less organised, more spontaneous • There is no formal curriculum. • Informal learners are often highly motivated to learn. • Not dependent on qualified teachers • Essential to a child’s early development and to an adult’s lifelong learning. • Its difficult to quantify Learning that takes place in dedicated educational institutions such as schools is seen as formal, learning which occurs beyond the school walls is ‘informal’.